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114 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


POINTED BARK CANOES OF THE 
KUTENAI AND AMUR. 


BY 


OTIS T. MASON, 

Curator , Division of Ethnology, U. S. National Museum. 





From the Report of tlio U. S. National Museum for 1899, pages 533-537, 

with five plates. 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1901. 







Sa. 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


POINTED BARK CANOES OF THE 
KUTENAI AND AMUR. 


BY 


OTIS T. MASON, 

u 

Curator , Division of Ethnology, U. .S'. National Museum. 


From the Report of the U. S. National Museum for 1899, pages 523-0.17, 

with five plates. 


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WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1901. 

















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POINTED BARK CANOES OF THE KUTENAI AND AMUR. 


HY 


OTIS T. MASON, 

Curator, Division of Ethnology. 


WITH NOTES ON THE KUTENAI CANOE BY MERIDEN S. HILL. 


523 

























































































































































































































































































POINTED BARK CANOES OF THE KUTENAI AND AMUR. 


By Otis T. Mason, 

Curator , Division of Ethnology. 

WITH NOTES ON THE KUTENAI CANOE BY MERIDEN S. HILL. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Among the series of models to illustrate the history of navigation 
gathered in the U. 8. National Museum there is one of a canoe secured 
a long time ago by Mr. George Gibbs and numbered 641 in the 
Anthropological Catalogue. Figures of such canoes are given in the 
Standard Natural History, 1 Lord’s British Columbia, 2 Proceedings of 
the Royal Society of Canada, 3 and by Julian Ralph. 4 

The model in question is not of birch-bark, but of pine-bark (Pinus 
monticola), laid on with the inner or smooth side out. The canoes of 
this type are all pointed like a monitor, at either end, on or below the 
water line; that is, they are longest on the line of the keel. When 
new they seem to be straight along this line, but, from being loaded 
in the middle, they sag afterwards, and the pointed ends get turned up 
through striking the shore in landing. 

Mackenzie mentions the use of spruce-bark in canoe building, but 
does not speak of the shape. 

A glance at a large collection of American Indian water craft through¬ 
out both continents reveals the fact that this pointed type is unique 
for the Western hemisphere. In the north and east the birch-bark 
•canoes prevail, and farther north the kaiak and the umiak. In the west 
the dugout is universal and assumes often large size and graceful out¬ 
line. But every example of skin boat, bark canoe, and dugout on the 
Western Hemisphere, excepting the Kutenai canoe, is longer on top 
and narrower at the bottom, or what would be the keel if any were 
present. In a few local forms of Canadian bark canoes there is a sug¬ 
gestion of a chin at the ends, faintly hinting at kinship with the Kutenai 
type. Further examination into the water craft of North and South 
America fails to reveal any such form as that of the Kutenai canoe. 
The bark boats or “woodskins” of the Amazon and its affluents and 

1 Vol. VI, p. 441. 

3 Vol. II, p. 178. 

NAT MUS 9b-36 


3 Vol. IX, p. 15, fig. 4. 

* On Canada’s Frontier, p. 293. 

525 








526 


REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 


the Orinoco have no such motives . 1 The reader will have to search in 
another part of the world for similar models, as will be shown 
further on. 


TYPES OF AMERICAN WATER CRAFT, BY AREAS AND FAMILIES. 


ZOOTECHNIC AREAS. 

1. Arctic. 

2. Canadian. 

3. Atlantic slope. 

4. Plains of the West. 

5. Louisiana or Gulf. 

6. Southeastern Alaska. 

7. Columbian region. 

8. Interior basin. 

9. California region. 

10. Pueblo region. 

11. Middle America. 

12. Antillean region. 

13. Cordilleran region. 

14. Upper Amazonian. 

15. Eastern Brazilian re¬ 

gion. 

16. Mato Grosso and 

southward. 

17. Argentina-Patagonian 

region. 

18. Fuegian region. 


PEOPLES. 

Eskimauan. 

Athapascan. 

Algonq uian-Iroquoian. 
Siouan. 

Muskhogean. 

Haida-Skiddagetan. 

Salish-Chinookan. 

Shoshonean. 

Very mixed stocks. 
Tanoan-Tewan and Sono¬ 
ran. 

Aztec-Mayan. 

Carib-Arawakan 


Chibcha-Kechuan. 

Jivaro, Peba, Puno, etc. 
Tupi-Guaranian, Tapuy an. 

Mixed people of Brazilian 
and Andean types. 
Chaco, Pampean, and 
Patagonian stocks. 
Aliculuf, Ona, and Yah- 
gan. 


WATER CRAFT. 

Kaiak and umiak of skin. 
Bark canoes. 

Dugouts and rafts. 

Coracle of buffalo hide. 

Cane floats and pirogues. 
Dugout, exclusively. 

Dugout and pointed bark 
canoes. 

None. 

Dugouts and reed rafts. 
None. 

Reed floats and dugouts. 
Dugout and woodskins—(1) 
woodskins, (2) buck- 
shell, (3) corial, (4) canoe. 
Balsas, reed floats with sails. 
Dugouts. 

Jangadas or catamarans. 

Woodskins and dugouts. 

Dugouts or none. 

Bark canoe in streaks or 
longitudinal sections. 


It would occur to any student of technography that in this particular 
spot the birch trees fail and nature furnishes an excellent substitute in 
the pine bark. On this point Mr. Gifford Pinchot, of the Forestry 
Division of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, calls my attention to 
the following quotations from Sargent’s Silva of North America: 

The canoe birch is one of the most widely distributed trees of North America. 
From Labrador it ranges to the southern shores of Hudson Bay and to the Great 
Bear Lake, and thence to the valley of the Yukon River and the coast of Alaska, form¬ 
ing with the aspen, the larch, the balsam poplar, the banksian pine, the black and 1 
white spruces, and the balsam fir, the great subarctic transcontinental forest; and- 
southward it ranges through all the forest region of the Dominion of Canada and the 
Northern States to Long Island, New York, and northern Pennsylvania, central 
Michigan, and Minnesota, the bluffs of the Niobrara River in northern Nebraska, 
the Black Hills of Dakota, northern Montana, and northwestern Washington. An 
inhabitant of the rich wooded slopes and the borders of streams, lakes, and swamps, 
the canoe birch, although it never forms a large part of the forest, is very common 


1 Von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvolkern Zentral Brasiliens, Berlin, 18S4, p. 120 
pi. X. 






POINTED BARK CANOES. 


527 


in the maritime provinces of Canada, in the region immediately north of the Great 
Lakes, and in northern New England and New York, where it ascends to higher ele¬ 
vations than any other deciduous-leaved tree; it is small and comparatively rare in 
the coast region of southern New England, in southern New York, and central Minne¬ 
sota; widely distributed at high latitudes from Labrador to the eastern base of the 
Rocky Mountains; it is never very abundant there nor a conspicuous object in the 
landscape, and within the Arctic Circle becomes small and crooked. West of the 
Rocky Mountains, where it attains its largest size, the canoe birch usually grows 
singly and is found only along the banks of streams. (Vol. IX, p. 57.) 

The Western white pine is distributed through mountain forests from the basin of 
the Columbia River, in southern British Columbia, to Vancouver Island, southward 
along the western slopes of the Rocky Mountains to northern Montana, and to the 
Bitter Root Mountains of Idaho, westward along the mountain ranges of northern 
Idaho and Washington, reaching the sea level near the shores of the Straits of 
Fuca, and southward along the Cascade Mountains and the Washington and Oregon 
coast ranges, extending eastward in Oregon to the high mountains east of Goose 
Lake, and southward along both slopes of the California Sierras to the ridge between 
Little Kern and Kern rivers, in latitude 36° 25 / . In northern Idaho the western 
white pine grows to its largest size, and is most abundant, often forming an important 
part of the forest at elevations of from 2,000 to 2,500 feet above the sea on the 
bottom lands of streams tributary to Lake Pend Oreille; farther east, in Montana, 
it is less abundant and smaller; in the interior of British Columbia it is not abun¬ 
dant, although it sometimes is large; it is scattered in considerable numbers through 
the coniferous forests of the coast ranges of British Columbia and through the interior 
of Vancouver Island; and it is not rare on the Cascade Range, where it ascends to 
elevations of 5,000 to 6,000 feet, nor on the California Sierras, first appearing singly 
or in small groups along the upper margin of the fir forest, and attaining its noblest 
dimensions in California at elevations of about 10,000 feet above the sea, where trees 
90 feet high, with trunks 5 or 6 feet in diameter, sometimes occur, and resist for 
centuries, with their massive trunks, and short, contorted branches, the fiercest 
Sierra gales. (Vol. XI, p. 23.) 

As to the unique shape of the Kutenai canoe on the American Con¬ 
tinent, it will not suffice to say that pine bark is more easily bent after 
this fashion, and that in obedience to the law of economy of effort 
this was the natural result of employing that material. The writer 
made experiments with substances having similar toughness and elas¬ 
ticity and found it no more difficult to bend them into the common 
canoe form than into the monitor form when the material is properly 
cut out. As to the economy of sewing at the ends, that is difficult to 
determine. At any rate, the other American Indians invariably slope 
their birch-bark canoes outward from the bottom at both ends, but 
the Oltscha and Goldi of the Amur, and even the Tungus and Yakut, 
imitate the Kutenai tribes and point their birch canoes below the 
water. 

In order to ascertain the distribution and handling of these pine- 
bark canoes, the assistance of Mr. Meriden S. Hill, secretary of the 
Tacoma Academ} r of Sciences, Washington, was invoked, and the 
results of his investigations will now be given. 


528 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 

THE KUTENAI CANOE. 

The pine-bark canoe, pointed at both ends below water, is used in 
only a circumscribed area on the Kootenai River, and on the Columbia 
at the mouth of the Kootenai. In order to make sure of this and to 
know more about the uses of this craft, at the suggestion of the curator 
of the Division of Ethnology in the U. S. National Museum, an exten¬ 
sive correspondence was conducted with missionaries and others who 
have spent years on the Kootenai and the Upper Columbia. (Plate 1.) 

It is well to say that the birch-bark canoe of regions east of the 
Rocky Mountains does not exist on the Columbia or the Kootenai, 
but the dugout, in ruder form, is to be found in many localities, 
becoming more beautiful and seaworthy as one approaches the ocean. 
The writer has never heard of any other regularly built canoe of bark 
or other material in America pointed at or below the water line. All 
the birch-bark canoes are rounded up the other way, like the prow of 
an old-fashioned ship or of a lifeboat. It was the writer’s purpose to 
work up the matter with greater detail, but he was prevented by 
continued illness. 

In the second volume of Ross’s Fur Hunters he says, speaking of the 
Kutenai upon the Arrow Lakes, in British Columbia: 

At the water’s edge we saw and examined a birch-rind canoe, of rather singular 
construction, such as I had never seen in any other part of the country, but used by 
the natives here; for I saw several of the same make when I passed this place two 
years ago. Both stem and stern, instead of being raised up in a gentle and regular 
curve, as is customary elsewhere, lie flat on the surface of the water, and terminate 
in a point resembling a sturgeon’s snout. The upper part is curved, except a space 
in the middle. Its length is 22 feet from point to point and the whole bottom 
between these points is a dead level. 1 

Such craft must prove exceedingly awkward in rough water, and 
there is often a heavy swell on these lakes. Dawson has also mentioned 
these canoes in the following language: 

In addition to the ordinary and always rough dugout canoe made from the cotton¬ 
wood (Populus trichocarpa ) probably, and employed occasionally on certain lakes 
or for crossing the rivers, the Shushwaps in the eastern part of their territory in 
British Columbia made small and shapely canoes from the bark of the western white 
pine (Pinus monticola). These may still be occasionally seen on Shush wap Lake 
and in the vicinity of the Columbia. The inner side of the bark stripped from the 
tree in one piece becomes the outer side of the canoe, which is fashioned with two 
sharp, projecting spur-like ends, strengthened by wooden ribs and thwarts inter¬ 
nally; the whole is lashed and sewn with roots, and knot holes and fissures are 
stopped with resin. The canoes thus made are very swift, and, for their size, when 
properly ballasted, remarkably seaworthy. 2 

Mr. G. M. Sproat, author of Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, 
says that the pointed canoe is the common craft on the Columbia River 


1 Alexander Ross, The Fur Hunters of the Far West, London, 1855, 2 vols. Vol. 
II, pp. 169,170. 

2 Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, December 11, 1891, fig. 4. 



POINTED BARK CANOES. 


529 


above Colville and on the lower part of the Kootenai. They are in 
daily use there, but are not known to have existed in any other part 
of America. 

Mr. A. J. Kent, of Idaho, writes that the Kutenai have no other kind 
of canoe except the one made of spruce, white pine, or cedar-bark, 
pointed at both ends beneath. These are about 15 feet long and weigh, 
say, 50 pounds. The bark is very tough and pliable when it is taken 
off in the spring. The squaws build the canoes when the sap starts, 
sewing them with rawhide or anything else strong enough, closing the 
cracks with pitch from the yellow pine. It takes two squaws four or 
five days to make a canoe, the chief difficulty being to get the bark ofi 
whole and to turn it wrong side out successfully. 

Mr. John Sizelove, postmaster at Kalispel* says that the pointed 
canoes are made of spruce-bark peeled off in a single piece. The 
frame is made of split cedar. The Indians at Kalispel will use no 
other kind of boat, as these are very light and can be taken out of the 
water and kept away from snow and ice in winter. This writer states 
that the points curve upward and do not sink below the water. It is 



Fig. 1. 

OUTLINE OF KALISPEL POINTED CANOE, SHOWING CURVED BOTTOM. 


a little difficult to decide at present whether this is a local peculiarity 
or due to the sinking of the middle when loaded. Mr. Sizelove sends 
a drawing to confirm his statement (fig. 1). 

The Kutenai bark canoes, ac-so-molth , are thus described by Mr. D. 
M. McLaughlin: The pine-bark is cut from the tree in the length 
required. The gunwales are prepared by splitting three pieces of 
cedar wood from a stem 3 to 4 inches in diameter, one of them a half 
cylinder wide, the other two in quarters, placing them about and above 
the margin of the bark, and lashing all fast with a band of the bark of 
the vine maple (Acer circinatum). After this is finished the ribs, 
made of the same vine-maple wood split into the required lengths, are 
forced in between the gunwales. Thin cedar boards are then pushed 
between these ribs and the bark of the canoe. The ends of the thwarts 
are forced in between the three pieces of cedar wood, forming the 
gunwales, closing or opening the canoe as required. These thwarts 
are then securely bound with the vine-maple so as to keep all stiff and 
solid, especially the middle one, since it has to bear the greatest strain. 
Mr. McLaughlin says that the canoes, in spite of their frailty, can 
stand an extraordinary amount of storm and wave when well managed. 






530 


REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 


He is sure that when the canoes are first finished they are as straight 
as an arrow along the bottom. After one has been used awhile the 
ends turn up more or less, according to the weight put into them. 
The Indians, after using one, take it out of the water to dry and this 
has a tendency to draw up the points. 

The Rev. Joseph M. Caruana, S. J., gives the following general 
measurements of the pointed canoe (in Salishan languages, tlie or thlie ), 
in use among the Lakes or Snaichisti Indians, in Stevens County, 



Fig. 2. 

POINTED CANOE OF THE LAKE INDIANS, WASHINGTON. 


Washington: length, 24 feet; width, 4 feet; depth, 2£ feet; paddle, 6 
feet; poles, used perpendicularly in strong currents, 6 feet; mat in 
bottom to kneel on while paddling, 3 by 4 feet. The same writer says 
that in 1862 pointed canoes were in great use among the Spokane and 
Coeur d’Alene tribes, as well as the Colville, or Sgoyelpy, and Kalispel. 
He crossed many a river on such bark canoes while living among the 
Cceur d’Alene or Szchizue Indians. These canoes held two persons 
with luggage. The bottoms were flat and the ends somewhat turned 



DETAIL OF THE LAKE INDIAN CANOE, WASHINGTON. 

up. They were fragile and swift. The Indians had no tradition and 
could give no account of their origin. The canoes examined by Father 
Caruana had ribs of white cedar, very light and pliable, and bound to 
the horizontal framework with split cedar roots or willow twigs. The 
ribs are pointed at the top and do not reach the gunwale, but are forced 
through the bark and covered in. The chinks are well pitched, espe¬ 
cially at the two ends. Mr. Kent, of Bonners Ferry, Idaho, describes 
one of the canoes as 14 feet long, weighing 50 pounds. 

Fig. 2 is of a model of the pointed canoe of the Lake Indians, made 
























































POINTED BARK CANOES. 


531 


under the supervision of Father Caruana. It is 3 feet long from point 
to point; open space, 2 feet; width, 6 inches; depth, 4 inches. This 
represents a larger one, 24 feet in length. Fig. 3 represents the de¬ 
tail of construction in the framework. In putting in the ribs incisions 
are made into and halfway through the bark of the hull at its upper 
border. The ribs are inserted into these openings and pushed upward 
and out at the edge, which has been split for this purpose. The ends 
of the ribs do not reach quite up to the gunwale. The ribs are fewer 
in number, but larger, and pass at their ends between the bark and 
the inside one of the three strips or staves which together form the 
gunwale. These also pass outside the longitudinal slats toward the 
hold of the boat, while the ribs pass between the longitudinal slats and 
the bark sheathing. Slender roots and thin bark ribbons, apparently 
of spruce, are used in stitching and wrapping the various sections of 
the canoe together. The seams and joints are well covered with 
pitch. As in the full-sized craft, the inside surface of the bark be¬ 
comes the outside of the hull, which is formed of three pieces, as 
indicated in the drawing. The part marked shows the method of 
bending on of one of the thwarts. In some cases the ends are pierced 
and seized or sewed to the gunwale. With this model were two 
pointed sticks representing the poles used in managing the canoe over 
swift currents, a paddle, and a mat on which the man kneels. 

CANOES OF THE KUTENAI AND OF THE AMUR COMPARED. 

Through the researches of Mr. Meriden S. Hill, given in the fore¬ 
going lines, and the courtesy of Dr. Demetri N. Anutchine, president 
of the Society of Friends of Natural Science, Ethnology, and Anthro¬ 
pology in Moscow, and of Dr. N. Doubrovinee, perpetual secretary of 
the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, it is made possible 
to bring into a comparative study two inventions that are like to each 
other and unlike to any other craft in either hemisphere. It is not 
necessary to do more than to refer to Mr. Hill’s remarks, since he has 
ransacked the upper drainage of the Columbia in northern Idaho, 
northeast Washington, and southeast British Columbia. Additional 
information comes from Mr. A. J. Kent, Bonners Ferry, Idaho, to 
the effect that the Kutenai tribes are not ingenious; that they follow 
closely their model; that the squaws make the canoes in the spring, 
after the sap starts, sewing the parts with rawhide as well as with 
bark splints, and that it takes from three to five days to finish a canoe. 
Maj. C. A. Bendire, U. S. A., had traveled often in one of these, and 
found no trouble in placing therein, besides himself and the boatman, 
his saddle and outfit. 

The Gibbs specimen, No. 641 in the U. S. National Museum, is 
made of pine-bark (Pinus monticola), in three pieces, drawn over a 
wooden frame, the inside of the bark forming the outside of the canoe. 


532 


REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 


The framework consists of four longitudinal rods, to which are lashed a 
series of ribs by means of bark strips. Outside of this frame and next 
to the bark are a series of false ribs or slats to hold the bark in place. 
The canoe is straight along the bottom and pointed at bow and stern. 
The gunwale consists of three long pieces, one, the inwale, laid along 
the inner margin of the bark; one, the outwale, laid parallel to this 
along the outer margin of the bark; and the third, the gunwale, which 
is broader and semicircular in section, is laid on top of all, so as to 
cover in the upper edge of the bark and the other two strips of the 
gunwale. The whole are lashed together with bark. This triple 
arrangement is also found on the upper margin of the bow and stern 
where the two edges of the bark are joined. The gunwale is held in 
shape and place by thwarts lashed at their ends. (Plate 2.) 

From the descriptions elicited by Mr. Hill concerning full-sized 
boats, it appears that the model is correctly made, and it is safe to 
conclude that— 

1. The Salishan and Kitunahan tribes that occupy the area included 
in the Kutenai drainage, make a canoe differing from any other craft 
known to American tribes. 

2. These canoes are made chiefly of the tough leathery pine-bark, 
on cedar frames and sewed with tough roots, such as the Indians employ 
for basketry all over this northwestern region. 

3. The bark is stripped off in lengths equal to those of the desired 
canoes, about 15 feet, and in order to increase its gliding quality is 
turned inside out. 

4. At a convenient distance from the ends the margins of the bark 
are firmly tied together. Between these two points of union the edges 
are forced apart and held in place by thwarts varying in length. Out¬ 
side the two points of union the ends of the bark are pinched togethei 
and triangular pieces cut from the corners, so that when the sloping 
edges are joined a sloping or incurved line extends from the points 
of union on top to the extremities of the bottom, in fact causing the 
canoe to look at each end something like a modern “ ram” or monitor. 

5. The bark is strengthened by ribs and by horizontal slats, and the 
parts are sewed together by means of vinemaple, pine, cedar, or spruce 
root, or with strips of bark. 

6. A gunwale is built up by splitting a cedar pole into three parts, 
one of them the segment of a circle in section for top wale; the other 
two, in wale and outwale, are quarters of circles in section, so that they 
will fit neatly on top and along the outer and inner margin of the 
upper border of the bark. In this part of the construction the Kute¬ 
nai craft is in contrast with other northern bark canoes. 

By reference to Major Powell’s map 1 of the linguistic stocks of 

1 J. W. Powell, Seventh Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, Washington, 
1891. 



POINTED BARK CANOES. 


533 


North America, it will be ween that the tribes in Washington using 
the pointed canoe are: 

1. Shushwap, of the Salishan family. 

2. Colville or Tgoyelpi, Salishan family. 

3. Kalispel, Salishan family. 

4. Spokane, Salishan family. 

5. Lakes or Snaichisti, Salishan family. 

6. Kutenai, Kituanahan family. 

In the light of these Kutenai specimens it may be interesting to 
examine similar craft of Asia. There being no trees yielding bark lit 
for canoe making along the Arctic coast, it is necessary to trace the 
fiftieth parallel of latitude, that of the Kutenai canoe, across the Pacific, 
and this brings one to the Amur basin. Upon this stream dwell Giliaks, 
Goldi, Manyargs, etc., unclassed ethnic groups—that is, ethnologists 
have not been able to relegate them to any of the well-known Asiatic 
families. 

An excellent account of these tribr is given by Leopold von Schrenk 
in a work entitled Reisen und Fors' hungen in Amurlande. He shows 
a Giliak man seated in a pointed bark canoe. 1 Layard also figures a 
Phoenician war galley pointed beneath the water. 2 

Von Schrenk describes three types of boat on the Amur River and 
about its mouth, the built-up boat, or bateau, the dugout, and the birch- 
bark canoe. 3 The first named is a sort of flat boat or scow made of 
three planks hewed out of the larch or Picea ajanensis , worked out with 
adze and knife and fitted together with pegs. Bow and stern boards 
are set in and the bottom board projects at the bow into a sort of plat¬ 
form, slightly turned up. In many examples considerable style and 
ornamentation are added, so that Schrenk believes this built-up form 
to have been introduced under Manchu-Chinese influence from Soon- 
garia. For centuries Chinese merchants, and among them Manchu 
officials, have come from Soongaria into the Lower Amur country, the 
former to trade with the people, the latter in order to collect from them 
the tribute owed to the Chinese Government. The boats in which these 
journeys are made are indeed much larger and more complicated than 
the Goldi Giliak examples, but they are on the whole of like construc¬ 
tion. It is to be remarked in this connection that the plank boat in 
use by the Giliaks at the Amur mouth; on Saghalin, by the Oltcha, 
their neighbors up the river; by the Golde, occupying the stream as far 
as the Usuri mouth; and by the Oltscha on the seacoast south of the 
Giliak, is entirely absent from upper Amur areas. Schrenk saw none, 

1 Leopold von Schrenk, Reisen und Forschungen in Amurlande. St. Petersburg, 
1881, III, p. 510. 

2 Perrot et Chipiez, Phoenecia, London, 1885, I, p. 34. 

3 Reisen und Forschungen in Amurlande, III. St. Petersburg, 1881, pp. 500-515. 



534 


4 


REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 


and Maack, following the Amur from the Schilka, encountered the 
first craft of this kind at the Usuri mouth. Maack also missed the 
kind of dugout (called unjamagda or awarpe) resembling in form the 
plank boat. 

The dugout canoe is found in the interior of Saghalin. Schrenk saw 
a Giliak example (called mlomv) in winter in the village of Yokyrn, 
carefully protected from snow, resting on a frame near the yourt. It 
was 20 feet long, broadest in the middle and tapering toward the ends. 
The bow terminated in a point, but the stern was square and perpen¬ 
dicular with a broad let-in, as in the plank boats. 

Much simpler and more primitive are the little canoes also excavated 
out of the Hammagda tree and pointed fore and aft, which, with small 
differences in proportions, are called by the Oltscha and the Golde 
otongo and gulba. Both are of the same form, pointed fore and aft, 
but the gulba in relation to its length is narrower and deeper and with 
thicker walls than the otongo , and for that reason better fitted to be 
used in rough water and in places abounding in stones and rocks, etc. 
The dugouts of Hammagda wood made by the Orochi on the seacoast 
and the mountain streams flowing to the sea and on the tributaries of 
the Lower Amur or Usuri are the same as those made by the Golde 
and Oltscha on the main stream. So was the awarpe of the Orochis, 
on the Upper Munamu stream, made and used outward on the Amur. 
On the contrary, only now and then, throughout the long course of 
the Amur does one of the Golde, Oltscha, or Giliak plank boats find 
its way to the Orochi, on the seacoast. 

Schrenk saw among the Birari of Ossika on the Amur a dugout 
canoe called by them mango , 28 feet long, 3 feet broad, and 1 foot 
deep, and another time one still larger, in which Biraris from the Aar 
River were returning from their summer fishing grounds on the Amur 
to their winter settlements. It was deepty laden and carried mast, and 
sail made of canvas, and held at the corner with the hand instead of 
with shrouds. On the testimony of the Birari these boats were made 
from the stem of the abundant dshagda tree ( Pinus sylvestris , L.). 

Canoes made of a wooden interior structure covered with birch-bark 
are more commonly in use than dugouts among the Oltscha and Golde 
on the Lower Amur, and they are employed also by the Tungus on 
the Amur tributaries and throughout the streams of the Stanavoi 
Mountains. In general, of like type everywhere, having the two ends 
similarly pointed, these bark canoes called dsai by the Oltscha and 
Golde, in their outlines and proportions, as in individual traits, pre¬ 
sent many peculiarities. However, corresponding nearly to th q gulba 
and otongo dugouts of the Oltscha and Golde, there are two forms of 
bark canoes, one deeper and narrower in proportion to the length, 
generally decked a little with bark at bow and stern; and abroad, flat, 
and open form, with ends strongly upcurved. Of the former Von 


POINTED BARK CANOES. 


535 


Schrenk furnishes a lithograph 1 and of the latter a woodcut, showing 
a Goldi man at the mouth of the Usuri River sitting in his dual. The 
former, through its light form and the deck over the bow to keep 
otl the spray of the turbid waters, is better adapted to use on the 
upper streams. The latter, on the contrary, furnishes more room for 
the fishing and hunting outfit and for the game. The handling of the 
canoes is precisely the same as that of the dugouts, the otongo and the 


gulba. 

The measurements of the Oltscha canoe were 18£ feet long, 2£ feet 
broad in the middle, depth 11 inches. In managing these frail and 
light canoes the Amur-Tungus, Oltscha, Goldi, and other tribes, like 
their Siberian congeners, develop a skill and dexterity which, at times, 
in the mad rush of the swollen streams, not seldom recalls the hardi¬ 
hood and readiness of the Aleuts in their baidarkas, and is in strong 
contrast with the clumsiness and prudent foresight of the Giliak at 
the Amur mouth and on Saghalin Islands. What the snowshoes are 
in winter the birch-bark canoes are to the Tungus as soon as the 
waters have thrown off their icy coverings. Their light weight allows 
also the carrying of them with ease over long portages and in visiting 
other waters, either in hunts or migrat ions. Thus the birch-bark canoe 
furnishes the unique, typical, characteristic conveyance to the hunting, 
fishing, wandering, hungry Tungus. Also the Birari and the Man¬ 
ager have bark canoes of the form and structure of the dsai, but twice 
as long, while the width is the same. Schrenk saw among the latter 
an example 35£ feet long and only 2 feet 2 inches wide. Such a boat 
is like the Aleut baidarka with several holes, and more like the great 
mango. These are propelled with poles or with two or three double 
paddles, and are worked by men paddling first on one side and then on 
the other, shooting forward with great velocity. 

The pointed dugouts, as well as the birch-bark canoes, are found also 
among all the aboriginal tribes of the Upper Amur. Since these are 
chiefly nomads living by the chase, who only occasionally go down 
from their hunting grounds and the Amur tributaries to the main 
stream in order here to prosecute their fishing, these simple, easily 
repaired,*and, on occasion, readily transported craft, which are also 
available in rapid as in still water, suffice for all their needs. Not 
merely the narrow patterns, like the otongo or the dsai, are thus dif¬ 
fused, but also those of large dimensions. In such boats they migrate 
from winter to summer quarters and back, transporting not only women 
and children, but a multitude of tools and utensils. 

In the museum of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of St. Peters¬ 
burg are three models of pointed canoes, all made of birch bark. 
Through the kindness of Dr. N. Doubrovinee, secretary, I am able to 


1 Reisen und Forschungen in Amurlande, III, pl.xxxvm, iig. 5, p. 510. 





536 


REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1899. 


reproduce them here. The rudest paddle, a Tungus example, has a sim¬ 
ple handle with oblong elliptical blade, without decoration (fig. 4). 
The Yakut paddle is double, with cylindrical grip and oblong pentag¬ 
onal blades, square on the outer ends (fig. 5). The Goldi paddle has a 
similar grip and hexagonal blades with long tapering points, a grace¬ 
fully shaped implement (fig. 6). 

The double paddle is seen in the Giliak’s hand in Schrenk’s figure. 
The Goldi and Yakut employ also the double paddle in their pointed 
canoes, but in the Tungus pointed canoe the simple paddle is used. 
The single paddle is found elsewhere around the great circle of the 
earth that includes the two areas of the pointed canoe. The double 
paddle exists sparingly in the Eskimo area of Alaska and among the 
same people in Greenland. On all the waters of the southern United 
States the negroes propel their dugouts and skiffs with the double 
paddle. 

The Tungus model (Plate 3), though clumsy looking, is built up in 
five sections. Five strips of bark are bent in the middle and united 
at their edges to form the hull. The four seams extend quite around 




Figs. 4, 5, and 6. 

TUNGUS PADDLE; YAKUT PADDLE; GOLDI PADDLE. 


the craft and are rendered tight with pitch. The canoe is kept in form 
by a series of flat ribs, almost touching one another, and extending 
along the inside from end to end of the structure, as in a canoe. On 
the outside of the canoe, along the bottom, a wide strip of bark is 
sewed neatly, the stitches long on the inside of the boat and short on 
the outside, passing quite through two thicknesses of bark, including 
the flat ribs on the inside, holding all together. At the ends the canoe 
front is straight, the lines sloping inward only a little, so that it is but 
slightly pointed below. The bark is simply doubled over at the ends 
and sewed down. On the upper margin strips of wood are sewed on 
both sides of the bark to form inwale and outwale. There is no top 
piece except along a short space between the thwarts. Here the side 
strips for wales leave the margin and pass downward a little to make 





































POINTED BARK CANOES. 


537 


way for the cap piece along the middle. The top piece is neatly 
chamfered and grooved to lit in place. There are four thwarts, two 
near the ends of the hold, which are merely lashings, the material 
passing backward and forward two or three times and then closely 
woolded, two solid pieces near the middle of the canoe serving as 
spreaders. The ends of the thwarts are pierced and lashed to the gun¬ 
wale at the ends of the cap pieces so as to hold all parts firmly together. 
The Tungus canoe is wide and shallow and is an excellent freight boat. 

The Yakut pointed canoe (Plate 4) is also made in sections of birch 
bark, of which, in the model here studied, there are four in number, 
passing around from gunwale to gunwale, overlapping and stitched 
together. The bottom is strengthened by adding broad strips of bark 
from end to end and sewing them down at their edges. At the ends 
the Yakut canoe is shaped like a snout, the line from bottom upward 
being incurved. The joint at the ends is a very simple one, the edges 
of the bark cut to shape and sewed together. The gunwale is formed 
by a binding of bark turning over and hemmed down, the edges show¬ 
ing on the outside and inside. Two thwarts are held in place by a 
lashing which passes across parallel and on both sides of the thwart 
and fastened through the bark sides. The canoe is held in shape by 
means of flat, wide ribs, whose ends are concealed under the bark 
binding of the gunwale. The Yakut canoe is a wide craft, better 
suited to freight than speed. As the model here described is rougher 
than the others shown, it is possible that the larger ones have better 
elements of construction. 

The Goldi pointed canoe (Plate 5) more closely resembles that of the 
Giliak and of the Kutenai. The hull of the model consists of a single 
piece of bark (but in full-sized boats it may be in sections) and there is 
no additional layer of bark on the bottom. The gunwale is formed by 
clasping the edge of the bark between two strips of wood, forming 
inwale and outwale, and there are no top strips as in the Kutenai 
craft. The unique feature in the Goldi canoe is the insertion of a 
wooden point at either end. This is curved upward gracefully. 
Another noteworthy feature is the covering of a portion of the hold 
at either end with a sheet of bark, forming a partial deck. One 
thwart is shown in the model, though others must exist in the full-sized 
canoes. Slats are laid along the inside lengthwise and over these are 
neatly forced in flat-rib pieces at intervals. This is a dainty looking 
craft, long and slender, and doubtless used for speed and fishing and not 
for freight. In the middle of the inside a piece of hide affords a 
kneeling place for the boatman. 


Report of U. S. National Museum, 1899.— Mason. 


Plate 1 



Kutenai Canoe in Motion. 




















Report of U. S. National Museum, 1899—Mason. 


Plate 2. 



Detail of Kutenai Canoe. 


























































































































































































































































































































Report of U. S. National Museum, 1899.—Mason. 


Plate 3. 





Tungus Pointed Canoe. 
















Report of U. S. National Museum, 1899.—Mason. 


Plate 4. 
















Yakut Pointed Canoe. 















Report of U. S. National Museum, 1899.—Mason. 


Plate 5. 



Goldi Pointed Canoe. 











































































































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